This video is an excerpt from a much longer France travel talk by Steve Smith.
To view other topics, or to watch Steve's France talk in its entirety,
visit ricksteves.com or check out my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Enjoy.
The Dordogne, and the Languedoc. Seven hours south of Paris, the city of Sarlat is the heart of
the Dordogne region, another three hours south from there, Carcassonne is the
capital site for the Languedoc area, taking us all the way to the border of
Spain. The Dordogne, the lazy Dordogne River is often, this region,
American's favorite place that they had never heard of, or been to in France, when
they go, for it's simply beautiful. Stone palaces, stone fortresses, pardon me,
guard above the lazy river. Walnut orchards, tobacco fields, and sunflowers carpet the
valleys below. Traditions run deep here. Walking-- passing your neighbor walking his
geese in the evening is not an unusual event in the Dordogne region. And
remember, this is the land of stuffed geese and duck liver, foie gras, and confit
de canard, or magret de canard, duck and goose, are very present on your menus at
night in this region. Sarlat, 10,000, 15,000 person town makes a great base,
this is a largely very rural area. Only recently was there a freeway that led to
the Dordogne region. Sarlat is a seductive tangle of cobblestone alleys
and gold stone buildings. Entirely free of cars, except for one main street that
intersects the city. You'll find, two days a week, it's Europe-- France's greatest
market day, and it covers and fills all of the pedestrian-only lanes, it seems,
and squares in the town of Sarlat, making it lovely. There's no important
sight to see in the town of Sarlat, it's just a beautiful place to be and to base
yourself for great sightseeing. We like the market day so much there, if you've
seen the TV show that I've done with Rick, we take you through, and in our
guidebook, we do a self-guided tour through a market day, Wednesdays and
Saturdays in Sarlat. Arrive on a Tuesday night
or Friday night, and wake up to the sounds of
the market being established. Anything you see in the market should be fresh,
you should be looking for it on your menu that dinner, at night. And again, Sarlat
makes a lovely place to stay.
I'd recommend three nights here for all there is to do within a short distance
of the town. If you don't have a car, a minivan tour is essential.
There's no way public transit's gonna get you to the great sites around, unless you
choose to take a canoe trip down the lazy river. This is one of Rick's favorite
things to do. Whenever I travel with him we always make time to canoe down the
Dordogne River. For here, you can spend two hours, four hours, all day if
you want to, sauntering down different parts. They'll drop you-- pick you up in Sarlat,
if you don't have a car, and then drop you at the river and
allow you, and it's a fat, very slow-moving river, to sight-see from a canoe. Stop at
Castelnaud, here. Wander to the top through the village and check out one of
France's greatest monuments to the the Hundred Years War. The castles in the
Dordogne, then, have a lot of history related to the Hundred Years War.
Every room in the Castelnaud castle has war-- military inventions, and crossbows, and
such from the Middle Ages. It's a great education if you're into warfare, and the
catapults are the capping part from the top of the castle. Then continue on your
canoe to the town of Beynac. Slide your canoe into this town, wander the top of this
castle. That Castelnaud castle was British for a long time, Beynac here was French,
and they fight each other for a long time.
And climb to the top that castle for grand views. We list the chateau of--
the castle of Beynac. This region of France is famous for having more artifacts from
prehistoric times than anywhere else in the world, and nowhere else is it
accessible as well as it is in the Dordogne Valley to see this
incredible concept of art from 20,000 years ago. When woolly mammoths
and saber-toothed tigers were prowling the earth, cavemen were painting inside
caves. And we can see four of those original caves today, if we plan our time
well. First I'd start at the Museum of Prehistory in the town of Les Eyzies. Over
400,000 years of history are covered pretty well in English,
they do a good job translating in English. With eighteen thousand artifacts,
this is a good basis of understanding prehistoric art. And if you can't get to
this museum, read the exceptional passage and introduction to this form of
art that Gene Openshaw wrote for the France book. That gives you an
understanding and a sympathetic view to these people. And, as you approach the
caves, understand that they painted deep inside a cave. In limestone caves you
needed this kind of rock for this to occur, often prowling in six miles
15,000 to 20,000 years ago with lamps made of animal fat, I guess, I
understand, to paint on the walls. There are four caves I mentioned before where
you can see the original thing and you have to be organized and on the ball to do so.
This is the entry to the Font-de-Gaume cave, the greatest of them all, and
the hardest to get into. I won't pretend that it's going to be easy for you to
get into this, but, by the internet, if you do well ahead, you might get lucky and
find a spot, or show up very early in the morning, and I mean six o'clock early for
nine o'clock opening, and hope for the first spot available in line that day. I
think that's crazy. Because, nearby, the caves of the Rouffignac, where a train takes you
three miles in the cave, passing ice age bear scratches on the walls as you go,
and seeing black outlines of woolly mammoths like this. It's a gripping site,
and easy to get into is the cave at Rouffignac.
Pech Merle, about 45 minutes to the south,
add color to what Rouffignac did with black and white, and paintings of horses. You have to
imagine all these different animals painted. And imagine this, this is one of
a kind, where a man blew with a straw, probably, paint around his hand or her hand,
incredible. Pech Merle, this cave with original cave art, can be booked
rather easily, 500, 600 people are allowed in on a daily basis, that's
pretty good. Most of these caves have very limited numbers of people who are
allowed in.
Two hours north of Sarlat lies the powerful village of Oradour-sur-Glane.
Here, halfway to the Loire Valley, good stuff on your way if you're ready for it.
Four days after the invasion of D-Day, looking into town on June 9, looking very
much as you see it in this image, was invaded by Nazis. All the people,
642 people, were rounded up, taken to the church,
machine-gunned to death, and then burned, left under a blanket of ash as the whole
town was. The fact that that happened really wasn't so unusual in WWII, just ask
Italians and other French. What is unusual, is the French left the town
exactly as they found it, exactly on June--
and you'll see what it looked like on June 10, 1944, clearing out so that tourists could
see a little bit. You can see the light rail line, or the tramway, that led to the big
city of Le Monge nearby. Walk by rusted out cars, bicycles left positioned
against the sides of walls, sewing machines inside of buildings. It's a powerful
sight to see,
and the reason it's kept, of course, by the French government for us to see
today, is to remind us that this happened, and that it should never happen again.
Sadly, in the 1990s in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we know that
genocide occurred again, so I'm glad that they still keep this going. And it's a
powerful site for you to see, with a great museum that introduces you to the
event and why, why, why, why, why this would have happened. Two, three hours south of
the Dordogne region, the grand feudal fortress of Carcassonne lies with
accepting is the capital, to me, of sightseeing of this cool region that
blends French and Spanish culture.
Wines in this area are coarse and heavy. I love the wines made from the Languedoc, and I
love touring the walled city of Carcassonne. Arrive, again, much like--
arrived after five, and-- otherwise it'll be very crowded behind those walls. There
are four or five hotels within the walls, and several with views just outside the
walls. Spend the night in it or close.
Arrive at the end of the day, tour 80% of the walls, there are three levels of walls
that protect the city, started by the Romans, in Carcassonne. You can wander 80%
of them for free, and then have the famous dish, the local dish of the
area, cassoulet, a Roman concoction of mutton pork, sausage, goose, duck, and white
beans. I call it a fancy "weenies and beans dish," my wife calls it
fattening. This is the traditional dish though, of a peasant cooking in the Languedoc area,
matched by a very coarse, heavy red wine, mind you, that's heavy for France's heavy
red wine, then get out and see Carcassonne at night. The same walking tour
you may have done in the daytime is entirely different at night.
Camelot lies beautifully illuminated every day of the year, and again, if you don't
spend the night here or nearby, you won't see this, and I'd say, arguably, it's not worth going.
it's too crowded in the daytime, it's just--
I wouldn't go. Nearby, sights in the Languedoc area, just adjacent outside
of Carcassonne, that remind us of Provence, but this is southwestern France,
that's southeastern France, lie in memories of the Cathar people, a heretical group
of Christians who grew in numbers from 11 to the 13th century, who were chased out
by the Pope and the king of France, and the ultimate collusion to rid the church,
first of all, of a competing, ever increasing in popularity, religious
approach to Christianity, and the King of France saw the advantage of a land grab
to the southwestern corner of France. And together, after the genocide, if you want
to call it that, the Crusades preached against the Cathar people, who hid in villages
just like this. It's a gripping history that you'll see a lot-- read a lot about
in the Languedoc area. After that, the last Cathar was killed burned, at the stake in
1301, the French took control of this region, adding it to their
ever-increasing country size. Minerve, here, is the village that you can see, and
the castles, the Cathar castles as they're called today, where they ran to
hide, to escape. They were pacifists, they were vegetarians, they didn't fight, the Cathars, they
didn't have a chance against French the army, you see. Peyrepertuse is this castle, even if the Cathar
history is not that interesting to you,
the incredible construction of this castle 4,000, 3,500 feet high in the Pyrenees
Mountains near Carcassonne, about an hour and a half away. Beautiful drive that I
narrate in the guidebook between Carcassonne and there, follow the route I recommend . These
were originally built as outposts to protect, there are about 12 castles, the Maginot Line,
I call it, of the 12th century, to protect what is today Spain from what is today France,
you see. The Cathars just simply occupied deserted castles. Another hour away lies
the beachy hill town of Collioure, a perfect place to take a vacation from your
vacation on this western swing through the southern-western corner of
France. Collioure, most Americans have never heard of, yet it has France's best,
most moderate climate year-round. It's a gorgeous little fishing village, or
really, resort town, with a lovely old city here, a chateau of its own, and a beautiful
church. But really there's no sight, no turnstile worth paying for, worth crossing. This
is a chance just to sit on the sandy beach, drink the local wine vignoles or their
white or their red wine from Collioure, and imagine how close you are to Spain. Eat
something Spanish. Here, it's only a couple hours by train to Barcelona. If
you drop your rental car here, you can train to Barcelona and continue your trip into
Spain if you want to. Collioure makes a great stopping off point then for that. The
Languedoc and the Dordogne, together, are remarkable sights in the southwest corner of France.
If you've enjoyed this video, you'll find lots more at ricksteves.com,
and on my Rick Steves YouTube channel.
Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.